This page is about observations and not about cooking. But this post is an observation and it happens to include cooking. First, I am not a chef, or even a good cook. I think if myself as a functional cook, and prefer to make fresh food, particularly from my garden vegetables. But, within this framework lies an observation.I think that it is easy to get into a rut when preparing food, and we tend to do the familiar things with certain foods. For example, we all know that when we make stuffed peppers, we make the stuffing with ground beef, rice, tomato sauce, and whatever else we like, and place it into a pepper that has the top cut off, and the insides laboriously removed and cleaned. Then, the bottom is trimmed so that they will stand up straight for cooking. I sense a rut coming on!But, this year, as in some years past, the pepper crop was small, the peppers ripened at strange times, and the yield was diminished. But the last time this happened, I changed the recipe to include "unstuffing" the peppers. It occurred to me that after cooking the traditional stuffed peppers, the first thing that we do is cut the pepper open. So, now, I blanch the clean cut-up peppers for 5 minutes in boiling water,, and just throw everything together in a large frying pan. It is faster, easier, and it still tastes like stuffed peppers. The photo shows my bell peppers at different stages of ripening as explained over on the Odds 'n Ends page. Same pepper, different ripeness and more nutrients in the riper red peppers. The photos below show the meal with some added cherry tomatoes which will pop apart with cooking, and the finished unstuffed peppers:

Incidentally, I do something similar with baked beans. I have a perfectly good bean pot but I cook baked beans in a sauce pan on the stove-top. The beans don't realize that they are not in the oven. Its cheaper, takes less time, and tastes the same! There is a basic stuffed pepper recipe here. Try it Mikey, you will like it...